Diatribe

“Underwater River Rocks” by Dixie Distefano

 

brooding stones suffer anger

ignored by the sun beneath waters

too rushed to give them a care

left to wallow in mud of neglect

all their prettiness lost to admiring

eyes of the world noticed only by

coldblooded philistine fish with

their miniscule brain-hearts too

full of themselves nothing left

but to wait for the next glacier

era to scrape them from dull

deep obscurity raising them back

to their freed rightful place among

nature’s own objets de vertu

derisively flaunting their sheer

indestructible lifeless antiquity

mocking pathetic mortality

walking the crests of creation

 

 

From my book Bohemian Scents

Progress

“Catalyst” by Tara Baden

 

earthquakes tremble

beneath mighty mountains

the landscape evolves

rearranges lives of men

compelled to abide change

 

**************************

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” – Winston Churchill

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Riverthink

Cordillera

Painting by Thomas Moran

 

backbone of continents
bearing the consequent
burdens of staging all life
monumental with force
of emergent creation
thrust up through the
mineral soils and oxygen
skin of an agnostic planet
it renders support for the
roof of the world here
where spirits collect and
cavort above clouds in the
mists from which tumbling
headwater sources find
downpour in cataracts
rushing to feed mighty
rivers and watersheds
lofty divides between
cultures and characteristic
geographies heavy with
height of intrinsically
idiosyncratic composition
inorganic yet very much
alive having more than
once moved cataclysmically
marking the eons that men
would eventually learn
to call eras while naming
these mountains their first
solemn objects of worship
through countless millennia
minds trained so long on such
heights would inevitably
come to recognize God

 

 

From my book Ephemera

Memory Stones

“Box of Rocks” by John N. Agnew

From her earthen womb
Gaia gave graciously
Unto my poor mortal hands
Geological viable ova
Older than Hesiod
Unseen by his all-seeing eyes
Unknown by his all-knowing mind
Escaping the narrative voice
Of Theogony

They nest where I placed them
A reverent clutch safely laid
In a gently scooped warm oaken bowl
Organically sculpted
By modern artisan fingers
Each egg of its own
Unique color and shape
Each plucked from the uterine ground
Wherever my family has dwelled

These precious plain stones
Became birth
Became life
Absorbed nectars of joy
And purulent sorrows
Imbued with the intimate
Floods of experience
Cherished as memories
Ready to touch

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

Granite Stone

 

Photo from pinterest.com

 

 

igneous nugget
smoothed beneath glacial retreat
earthly talisman

suits my palm nicely
possessing prehistory
touching the cosmos

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

Hobson’s Choice

Burning Shale Photo by Douglas C. Pizac of AP

hollows haunt the deep shale
pools of dinosaur tears
remnant seas sad of time
burned and blackened but sweet
supple skeletons breathe
beneath civilizations
life beats in their promise
the future will come at a cost

 

 

(originally posted December 2013)

Catseye

 

The “Maharani Cat’s Eye” – photo from pinterest.com

 

prescient gemstone
sees what hides behind midnight
dark secrets exposed

Geode

Image from pinterest.com

(originally posted January 2014)

 

crystal existence
galaxies inside a stone
secretly waiting

Secrets of Stone

 

“Sea of Dreams” by Duncan George and Adrian Gray

 

search the stone

seek the soul

of the universe

feel the cool

silent wisdom

the knowledge

acquired from

aeons of witness

the birth pangs

attending the

every beginning

the traumas

ensuing the

every extinction

the stone

ever present

observer the

chronicler keeping

the stories and

stains of existence

the secrets of

cosmic creation

the seminal truths

urging mutable time

lodged inside its

hard heart where

they wait even now

as they’ve waited

so long for the

curious mind of the

first honest man

 

* * *

“A stone is ingrained with geological and historical memories.” – Andy Goldsworthy

Everland

Canyonlands National Park – Photo by Gary Baird

the American west

aeons on display

epochs marked by

divine hands of time

endless vistas

exhibit existence

its layered creation

gives grandeur to

powerful portraits

persistent with

water and wind

at their gradual work

of transforming

the earth framed

beneath the blue

glorious arch

of the firmament

here is forever

made tangible

granting to man

the humility born

of his relative

paltry significance